(Photo: John Shaw)

Spandau Ballet defined the 80s in London the way that The Who defined the 60’s, Bowie defined the 70’s and Oasis defined the 90’s, as Robert Elms says in his sleeve notes to GOLD “You’re hearing the sound of a city at a remarkable stage in its story”.

Spandau Ballet became one of the most commercially successful bands of the decade, and during their career they notched up 23 hit singles and spent a combined total of in excess of 500 weeks in the UK charts, achieving album sales of over 25 million worldwide. Some of their songs, like “True”, “Gold” and “Through the Barricades”, have become standards, while “True” has now achieved well over four million plays in North America alone and “Gold” was the true soundtrack to the London 2012 Olympics.

In the early 80’s Spandau Ballet were the In Crowd’s band, they ushered in a new era of visually dominated pop and their mechanical, stylised sound was born and bred on the dance floors of the West End, they were the Bowie Kids, Blitz Kids and white soul boys embracing electronica.

Spandau Ballet lasted just ten years the first time around, a career that spanned the nightclubs of Soho, Ibiza, New York and Hollywood as well as the stadiums and arenas of the world. They defined the decade, they came, they saw, they partied. And then they left.

However, to paraphrase the classic True ‘and then they came back again’ firstly with the hugely successful sell out Reformation Tour of 2009/10. It was during this time that their long term manager Steve Dagger came up with the idea for ‘Soulboys Of The Western World’. The film documents the late 70’s and 80’s in a way that had never been seen on screen before and tells the story of five friends who just happened to be in globally successful band. The critically acclaimed film world premiered at the SXSW film festival and played at the Rome Film Festival, NYC Doc, Cannes and the European premiere was at a sold out Royal Albert Hall. The band then embarked on the Soulboys Of The Western World tour playing to packed houses across Europe, the US, Australasia and the Far East.

As the band are about to embark on an exciting new chapter GOLD pulls together all the band’s greatest songs as well as two tracks ("This Is The Love" and "Steal") recorded with the legendary Trevor Horn in 2014 appearing on vinyl for the very first time. 

GOLD is the ultimate Spandau Ballet album….so far, and if you love music from the 80s, give our Hits of the 80s Quiz a go!